Humbling...

There is something magical about seeing an original piece of art, especially a famous piece such as the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris or Guernica at the Reina Sofia in Madrid. I can't help but get excited because I'm only inches away from something so special and, in the case of the Mona Lisa and Guernica, created by talents of monumental proportions.

Of course we all have our favorite artists and works of art. For me, Hieronymus Bosch is one such artist and to stand in the same room at the Prado in Madrid as one of his most famous pieces, The Garden of Earthly Delights, was an exhilarating moment. Other moments of the same caliber were seeing Jan van Eyk's Arnolfini Portrait and the Wilton Diptych, both at the National Gallery in London. The list goes on.

And to that list I can now add the da Vinci anatomical drawings, having seen them at the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace yesterday. Their intricacy and detail lend them a beauty and intrigue you can only marvel at. Just to be in the same room as something created by a genius of Leonardo da Vinci's proportions is humbling.